Damian Cook, founder and MD of E-Tourism Frontiers – a global programme that focuses on developing online tourism across emerging markets – died from a heart attack in Kenya on Sunday (November 20) at age 54.

Cook served for many years as digital/social media adviser to the African Travel & Tourism Association (ATTA) and as a much-valued board director from 2013 to 2018.

Always at the forefront of global digital tourism, he worked with tourism boards and organisations around the world, to train and educate tourism professionals in e-Tourism, while at the same time facilitating business across the global tourism industry.

ATTA posted this tribute to Cook on its website:

“Damian’s passion for Africa began at a young age, learning Swahili from a Tanzanian agricultural student when he was at university studying English and History in Brisbane in the late ’80s.

His first trip to Africa was in August 1990 and he stayed for three months travelling from Zimbabwe to Kenya – very much the mirror end of what would be his last Africa trip – Zimbabwe and back to his home in Kenya, where for a night he reconnected with the much-loved dogs and his home in Watamu, filled with art and objects collected from his travels.

Damian was a global traveller and he had friends around the world, but his heart was in Africa and he would be happy that he will be laid to rest in Africa. 

He was passionate about the travel community and was a champion for many different issues. His legacy will be working to promote African tourism, particularly online, with recent projects with the Zimbabwe tourism community and the Rwanda Gorilla project. His favourite line #keepmoving hopefully will encourage more travel across this wild and beautiful continent – a place he was proud to call home.

It’s also very fitting that the last photo he posted was flying over the Victoria Falls in a microlight glider. His lust for adventure and travel burned so brightly, and hopefully that energy will live on in the people and the communities that he worked with.

He will be sorely missed by all those he worked with. Our thoughts and prayers are with Elizabeth and family at this difficult time.”